Jet manifold ink oxidizer



H. R. DICKERSON 3,399,872

JET MANIFOLD INK OXIDIZER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 w R0 0 3 mm W- vz s xx mm H nwbwo M m m 7 5 1A a M H MM L \L W a: x m w Sept. 3, 1968 Filed May 18, 1967 P 1968 H. R. DICKERSON 3,399,872

JET MANIFOLD INK OXIDIZER Filed May 18, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 O O ira INVENTOR. l/E/MQ) 6. 0/0685 01V ATTOEA EYS United States Patent 3,399,872 JET MANIFOLD INK OXIDIZER Henry R. Dickerson, 741 S. Chase Lane, Lombard, Ill. 60148 Filed May 18, 1967, Ser. No. 639,387 4 Claims. (Cl. 263-3) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An ink drying device having a flat perforate wall disposed near the path along which a freshly printed sheet of material is moved away from the printing plates of a printing press following the printing operation. The drying device has an elongated and relatively thin chamber, the one wall of which converges with another from the opposite ends thereof toward the center thereof. Heated gas is forced into said chamber from said opposite ends and discharged substantially uniformly through the perforations in the perforate wall directly toward the printed surface of the sheet material moving along said path.

Background of the invention This invention relates in general to a printing press and, more particularly, to a type thereof having printing rolls and a device for applying a hot gas under pressure to the freshly inked surface of a printed sheet as it moves away from said printing rolls.

Persons acquainted with the operation of printing presses have long been aware of the problems created by the moist ink on a freshly printed sheet. In fact, the substance of this problem has been present since the dawn of the printing art. Previous attempts to overcome this problem, particularly in high-speed printing presses, have at best been less than satisfactory.

It is almost too obvious to state that any reasonable approach to the problem dictates the insertion of some form of drying device into the printing machine where the freshly printed sheet moves away from the inked plates. Yet, little or nothing of real significance has been done to provide a truly satisfactory drying device, especially in letterpresses and offset presses using printing rolls. It is thought that this previous failure to solve the problem is at least partially due to the small amount of space available within existing printing machines at the point where the drying device should be located. It is common knowledge that drying mechanism of conventional types could not be placed in these spaces. Moreover, it has long been apparent that the ink must be dried or oxidized very quickly because of the relatively high speed at which the printed sheet material is moved through the printing press.

Accordingly, a primary object of this invention has been the provision of a device capable of location within a printing machine closely adiacent the point of discharge from the printing plates for quickly drying the moist ink on printed sheet material immediately after the printing operation is performed and before the printed material leaves the printing machine.

A further object of this invention has been the pro vision of an ink drying device, as aforesaid, which is thin and compact so that it can fit into the limited space available within existing roll-type printing presses.

A further object of this invention has been the provision of a drying device, as aforesaid, which applies a heated gas under pressure against the printed surfaces of the sheet material in a substantially uniform pattern to effect uniform drying, which is inexpensive to manufacture and maintain, which can be easily adjusted for varying requirements and which can be easily installed on existing printing presses.

Other objects and purposes of this invention will become 3,399,872 Patented Sept. 3, 1968 apparent to persons familiar with this type of equipment upon reading the following descriptive material and exam ining drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a schematic, side elevational view of a roll-type printing press embodying the invention.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged fragment of the printing press shown in FIGURE 1 as viewed from the opposite side thereof.

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view of said press taken along the line III-III in FIGURE 2 and illustrating a side view of the drying device of the invention.

FIGURE 4 is 'a sectional view taken along the line IV IV in FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 5 is a sectional view taken along the line V-V in FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 6 is a sectional view taken along the line VI-VI in FIGURE 4.

FIGURE 7 is an enlarged, broken and partially schematic view of a gas heating unit associated with the drying device of the invention.

For convenience in description, the terms upper, lower and words of similar import will have reference to the printing press, the drying device and parts associated therewith as appearing in FIGURES l and 2. The terms front, rear and words of similar import will have reference to the left and righ sides, respectively, of the machine as appearing in FIGURE 2 and the words inner, outer and derivatives thereof will have reference to the geometric center of said machine and parts thereof including the drying device of the invention.

Detailed description A preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in association with a printing press 10 (FIG- URE 1) having a device 11 which feeds sheet material 12, such as a roll of paper or a stack of paper sheets, into a series of rolls 13 including a printing roll. The printed sheet 12 is then engaged by a conveyor 14 which transports the freshly printed sheet along a path which passes beneath the dryer 17 and ultimately deposits the dried sheet at a receiving station 18. Although the printing press 10 illustrated in FIGURE 1 is of an offset type, it will be recognized that the dryer 17 can be adapted for use with other types of printing presses, such as a letterpress, and this further use is contemplated by the present invention.

The dryer 17, as illustrated in FIGURE 2 is of such construction that it may be located in the relatively limited space normally provided between the reaches 19 and 20 of the conveyor 14, which comprises a pair of parallel endless chains having grippers 21 which automatically engage the printed sheets 12 and move them along the path 22 from the rolls 13 to the receiving station.

The dryer 17 (FIGURE 3) is provide with an air heater 23 (FIGURE 7) which may be of the type manufactured by Pyronics Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio, and referred to as a Pyro-jet heater. This particular heater 23 is energized by a combustible gas which fiows from a source 25 (FIGURE 3) through a conduit 24 to a mixing chamber 27. The gas is mixed in the chamber 27 with air supplied under pressure through an air conduit 32 leading from a source 26 to the mixing chamber 27. Conduits 24 and 32 are provided with valves 28 and 33, respectiaely, which permit regulation of the gas-air ratio. The mixture of gas and air is fed into the chamber 34 where combustion takes place and produces a heated gas at an elevated pressure. This pressurized and heated gas is fed into a second chamber 37 where it mixes with air supplied from said source 26 through the bypass conduit 38, whereby the heated gases are accelerated before they pass into the manifold 39. The bypass conduit 38, which extends between the air supply conduit 32 and the acceleration chamber 37, may be provided with a regulating valve 36.

Another air heater 31, which may be identical with the heater 23, is preferably provided on the opposite side of manifold 39.

The manifold 39 (FIGURES 4, 5 and 6), which is substanitially fiat and thin, is supported by conventional means, such as the bracket 41, within the press 10 adjacent and above the path 22 along which the sheets 12 are moved by the conveyor 14. The manifold is preferably substantially rectangular and has a flat, perforate lower wall 42 and imperforate side walls 43 and 44. Said manifold has a pair of end walls 46 and 47, which converge toward the gas inlets 54 and 55, respectively. The manifold has an imperforate upper wall 48 which is inclined from the center thereof toward both end Walls 46 and 47. Thus, the chamber 56 defined by the manifold 39 has a minimum cross-sectional area at the center of the manifold 39, and such area increases gradually toward the opposite ends of the manifold 39. A plurality of baflies, such as the baffies 49, 51, 52 and 53 are provided in the opposite ends of the manifold 39 to disperse the heated gases uniformly into the chamber 56 for uniform dis-charge through the outlet openings 58 in the lower wall 42. The manifold 39 may also be provided with a cover 59, which rigidifies the dryer.

Due to the convergence of the upper and lower walls of the manifold 39 toward their central portions, the total pressure is maintained at a relatively uniform value within the various parts of the chamber 56, even though the inlets are at the opposite ends and the holes 58 are dispersed therebetween.

Operation Although the operation of the ink dryer or ink oxidize-r 17 is probably evident from the above description, further details thereof will be given for 'a more complete disclosure of the invention. A supply of combustible gas and air under pressure are mixed in chamber 27 and then fed into the combustion chamber 34 Where they are ignited and thereby produce a heated gas at a higher pressure. The heated gas is then directed into the 'acceleration chamber 37 where they are further mixed with and accelerated by air from the bypass conduit 38, and then discharged through the inlet 55 into the chamber 56 defined by the manifold 39 where the baflles 49 and 51 'assist in producing an even dispersion of the pressurized and accelerated gas. As the freshly printed material is moved along the path 22 from the printing and transporting rolls 13 by the conveyor 14 beneath the manifold 39 of the dryer 17, the heated, pressurized gas discharges through the openings 58 in the lower Wall 42 whereby it impinges upon the wet ink to oxidize 'and/ or dry same. Since the upper wall 48 converges with the lower wall 42, the cross-sectional area therebetween decreases as the volume of gas decreases within the chamber 56 so that a relatively uniform pressure is maintained in the chamber 56 lengthwise thereof as the gas escapes through the holes 57 in wall 42.

The average temperature of the heated gas discharged through the holes 58 in the lower wall 42 may be varied from approximately 300 F. to approximately 1600 F., and the velocity pressure of such gas adjacent the wall 42 may be varied from approximately five inches, water gauge or 2.89 ounces per square inch to approximately 12 inches, water gauge or 7.0 ounces per square inch. Where the inked surface is moved along a path within four inches from, and substantially parallel with said Wall 42, the dryer 17 is capable of satisfactory performance upon sheet materials moved at normal rates found in existing machines, which rates vary from 8,890 feet per minute to 13.870 feet per minute.

Although a particular preferred embodiment of the invention has been described above in detail for illustrative purposes, it will be recognized that variations or modifications of such disclosure which lie within the scope of the appended claims, are fully contemplated.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. In a printing machine having sheet-advancing means and indicia carrying means for applying inked impressions upon sheet means, a device for drying the ink impressions, comprising:

wall means defining a chamber having a substantially fiat, perforate wall adjacent the path of said sheetadvancing means annd substantially parallel with a sheet advanced thereby, said chamber having an imperforate wall converging with said perforate wall from two opposite edges thereof toward the center thereof;

a pair of inlet means connected to said chamber adjacent said opposite edges of said imperforate wall; and

a source of heated gas under pressure connected to each of said inlet means so that said heated gas discharges through the perforations in said perforated wall onto the inked impressions on said sheet means being advanced along said path.

2. An ink drying device according to claim 1, wherein the dimension of said chamber in a direction parallel with said path is at least four times the dimension of said chamber transversely of the perforate wall; and

including deflector means within said chamber near each inlet means and diverging away therefrom.

3. An ink drying device according to claim 1, wherein said heated gas is at a temperature of approximately 1000 F. and discharges through said perforations substantially uniformly with a velocity pressure of approximately 3.64 ounces per square inch.

4. An ink drying device according to claim 1, wherein the total pressure is substantially uniform throughout said chamber; and

wherein said source of heated gas comprises means defining a pair of combustion chambers connected to a source of combustible gas and a source of air, and valve means controlling the flow of said combustible gas and said air to said combustion chambers.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,230,826 2/1941 Burdett et al. l0l416.1 X 2,855,190 10/1958 Rieger 263-3 3,334,421 8/1967 Morris 34155 X 3,358,374 12/1967 Gustafsson et a1. 34155 X JOHN J. CAMBY, Acting Primary Examiner. 

